Meese Becomes `Hostage` In Farm-relief Fight

February 20, 1985|By Dorothy Collin, Chicago Tribune.

WASHINGTON — Farm state senators threatened Tuesday to hold up confirmation of Edwin Meese as attorney general until the Reagan administration and Senate leaders promise quick action on additional relief for debt-stricken farmers.

As the controversial Meese nomination finally came to the Senate floor more than a year after it was submitted by President Reagan, Sen. David Boren (D., Okla.) said that he and other farm-state senators would ``use those parliamentary tactics available to us.

``We have no choice,`` Boren told his colleagues. ``It is imperative that before it is too late, we act.``

The not-so-veiled threat of a filibuster caused Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole (R., Kan.) to assure the Senate that the administration would look at requests for more relief for farmers than it already has proposed.

Before the Senate adjourned for the day, Dole announced that a meeting had been held at the White House ``on this issue.`` The majority leader said he hoped this ``good-faith effort`` and a series of meetings on the credit crisis for Wednesday would persuade the farm senators to ``decouple the Meese nomination from their concerns.``

``I make a plea to my colleagues that we move on,`` Dole said. ``I hope to have something worked out on farm credit soon.``

Farm senators are unhappy with Reagan`s credit-relief proposal because they don`t feel it does enough soon enough. The President`s program would provide $650 million to guarantee farm loans if banks holding the loans reduced the principal or the interest.

After the filibuster threat appeared to become more than rhetoric, Dole told reporters that the $650 million in guarantees ``can be raised`` through administrative action.

The majority leader also met with a group of colleagues, including Sen. Alan Dixon (D., Ill.), which has introduced a bill that would allow farmers to borrow against future federal crop loans to get funds for spring planting. Dixon said his bill would not cost the government any additional money and would provide short-term relief for farmers.

The linking of the Meese nomination to farm credit relief was the first floor test of Dole`s leadership since he was elected majority leader late last year. It also allied the farm-state senators with other senators opposed to Meese`s nomination.

Dole not only has to deal with Democrats eager to test him and to pin the farm-credit problem on Republicans, but he has to pacify senators from his party concerned about their rural constituents and their own re-election.

Sen. Mark Andrews (R., N.D.), who is up for re-election in 1986, joined Democrats to threaten a filibuster. ``We`ve got to resolve the issue of farm credit,`` he told reporters. ``We`ve got to call attention to it. Some of these characters (in the administration) don`t know a steer from a heifer.``

In addition to Dixon`s bill, Sen. James Exon (D., Neb.) proposed an expanded package calling for at least $3 billion in guaranteed loans. The administration has been adamantly opposed to any program that would provide for spending in that range.

During the debate on Meese, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R., S.C.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, pleaded for confirmation because ``the facts have clearly shown that Mr. Meese has violated no criminal law and has acted ethically in his business and personal dealings.``

``I am confident that Mr. Meese is a man of ability, honesty, and integrity and one who will be faithful to the trust reposed in him,`` Thurmond said.

Sen. William Proxmire (D., Wis.) disagreed, saying there were thousands of Americans more qualified to be attorney general than Meese. To make his point, Proxmire rolled a 20-foot computer printout of names down the Senate aisle.

Meese`s nomination has been questioned for a year by those who contend his financial dealings and an appearance of conflict of interest make him unfit to be attorney general.